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From The Observer News
(www.observernews.net) Top Stories By Penny Fletcher
“We want to give people a place to go and walk, to talk at outdoor cafes and maybe take in a movie,” said Jay Miller, vice president of mixed use developments for the project’s developer, Equity Inc., which although based in Cleveland Ohio has a large regional office in Tampa. “It is designed for people to spend their leisure time walking, relaxing, and just strolling along. Much of it will be built around a large man-made lake.” The place Miller is describing is the new SouthShore Commons, to be built near the southwest corner of Big Bend Road in the Covington Gardens area. The eastern boundary will be I-75, the northern boundary is Big Bend Road, and the west side will be Covington Drive. Equity’s south side will back up to another development that is responsible for taking Covington Drive south to State Road 674. “We are not the ones doing that,” Miller said. “But we are widening the part (of Covington Drive) that goes through our project to two lanes (each way) with turn lanes added as well.” There will be 1 million square feet of retail space, 490,000 of office space, 250 hotel rooms – in two separate hotels- and when completed, about 7,000 parking spaces, Miller said. Equity, a general contractor, will be subbing much of the work out to local companies, he said. In the first phase, set to begin in late 2008 or early 2009, building will concentrate principally on retail space. “We’ll be starting with 50,000 square feet of retail and build the hotels and the rest of the office space as the market demands it,” he said. The total area of the project is 128 acres, bought in 2007 from The Thompson Trust. “Equity is making a few changes in the way the mixed use within the development reads from the original DRI,” he said. Miller explained that this was to accommodate the Town Center look in the renderings recently released by Dorsky, Hodgson, Parrish & Hue based in Cleveland. The offices will be two and three floors and will not look like sprawl, he said. There will be some mom-and-pop shops and several big-box anchors, which he was unable to name at this time because of negotiations in progress. “This was a 20-year DRI,” said Bob Buckhorn, a former Tampa City Councilman, who now heads the public relations firm touting the project. “It is scheduled for a final hearing on the amendments to the original plan. This is going to be a big plus for residents in South County. The environment is really going to be spectacular.” The $200 million project is slated to break ground in the fall. © Copyright 2008 by The Observer News Publications and M&M Printing |
